Improvement in the construction of toggle-joint presses for cotton, hay



EEreE@ ArENr ROBERT HARDING, OF SOUTH BERWIOK, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION 0F TOGGLE-IOINT PRESSES FOR COTTON,II-IAY, do.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 2,769, dated September3, 1842.

T0 @ZZ whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT I-IAEDING, of South Berwick, in the county ofYork and State of Maine, have invented a new and useful machine forcompressing cotton on shipboard, called aneonipound double-elbow-leverpress 5 and I ldo hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the construction and operation 'of the same,reference being had to the annexed drawings,

making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a perspectiveView of the whole press. Figs. 2 and 3 are the different parts of themachine, separated from the frame of thepress.

The frame of the press. A A, is made in a portable manner of timbersufficiently strong to sustain a pressure of two hundred tons, the topand bottom being securred together by rods and bars of iron and nuts BB. On the sills is laid a movable platform, C, with crosspieces andspaces between them according to the number of ropes on a bale ofcotton, and to the bottom of the follower D is a corresponding platform.

The follower is made of timber, the center pieces being separated fromeach other sufficiently wide'to admit of the ends of the horizontalpitman G, which are secured to the vertical center piece, E, to descendto the platl form, which is secured to the bottoni ofthe follower.- 'Ihecenter piece, E., is made of cast iron, with a space in the center toallow the screw to pass through, and sufficiently low to admit of itsown rise and fall. A place is also cast in the center piece at L toallow the 11pper end of the vertical toggle-joints K K to be connectedwith it. The lower ends of the same toggle-joints are connected withstands J J, which are secured to the follower. These toggle-j oints areconnected together with nu-ts or female screws M, through which and thecenter piece passes a double inverted screw, N,on one end of which is awindlass-wheel, O. One end of the horizontal pitman G being secured tothe lower end of the center piece, the other ends act against thevertical toggle-joint H H at each end of the press, which are secured tothe top frame of the press and the follower by stands I I. On each sideof the center piece are guiding-planks F F, which are secured to thefollower, and pass through the top frame of the press, an-

swering the double purpose of keeping the follower square and the centerpiece in a cen- `man'G G to operate with double power against thevertical toggle-joints H I-I at each end of the press, thus making again of threefold power without loss of time or speed. It is evidentthat the same power applied to a double inverted screw and toggle-j ointalone would produce twothirds less pressure after they open beyond anangle of forty-five degress, and in both cases the follower moves thesame space in about the same time, and yet by the arrangement of thescrew and toggle-j oints acting directly against the follower, as wellas against the other toggle-joints, no more power is lost below a rightangle than what is lost in a screw and toggle-joint alone.

This press is made portable and for ships use, for the purposeoi'repressing cotton, and can also be used for other purposes forpressing where a great pressure is required. For most purposes thedimensions would be eight feet high, sixwide, and two deep, and it canbe put up or taken down in an hour.

y I do not claim the application of the right and left handed screw tooperate the two pairs of toggle-joints, as above described; nor do Iclaimzthe manner of operating two pairs of toggle-joints by a horizontalpitrnan connecting to a central movable piece 5 but What I do claim, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent as my invention, is

Ihe manner of combining the toggle-joints moved by a right and lefthanded screw operating on the movable center piece, E, with thetoggle-joints'moved by the horizontal pitman G, constructed andoperating as above described.

In testimony whereof I, the said ROBERT HAEDINmvhereto subscribe :mynamein the presence of the witnesses whose names are hereuntosubscribed, on the 19th day of August, A. D. 1842.

' It. HARDING.

Witnesses:

.TOEN HUBBAED, SAMUEL HAEDrNe.

